


joke

by frostii



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: I love them so much, M/M, Qibli is only mentioned in this, i know i should be working on lunar and darkness turning but i had to get this out lol, i wrote this based off a headcanon i wrote a while back on tumblr, no matter how much he tried to convince himself he hated the idea he actually didn't, so are his family members, where winter realized he had a crush on qibli only after the marriage joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 12:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20291185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frostii/pseuds/frostii
Summary: I wish you didn't joke so much





	joke

Two months. It had been two whole months since Winter had gone with Qibli to the Scorpion Den on a mission to save Ostrich. Two months since he’d met Qibli’s murderous family. Two months since Qibli had jokingly said to his mother that one day, he’d probably end up married to Winter.

A scroll fell out of Winter’s talons and clattered to the floor before he could catch it, the noise alerting everyone around him. Winter cast a look full of daggers at the staring dragons, who quickly turned back to whatever they had been doing. Winter, his face burning cold from embarrassment, leaned down and picked up the scroll. He had been writing notes about the progress he’d been making with his scavengers, but at some point he had abruptly stopped writing. _ Stop thinking about him, _ he hissed at himself in his head. _ He was joking. And we’re friends. He doesn’t think of me like that, and I don’t think of him like that. He’s an annoying know-it-all with snow for brains and I’d rather be mauled by a giant dragon-eating polar bear than be stuck with him for the rest of my life. _

“Winter? Hello? Earth to Winter?”

Winter’s head shot up and he realized he’d let _ those _ types of thoughts fill his head again. _ Don’t even think about how annoying he is! That’s still thinking about him! _“What?” he growled, sounding meaner than he meant to. Luckily, it was only Riptide standing there, and he was used to Winter acting like this.

Riptide’s blue eyes flicked to the scroll in Winter’s claws, and he must have noticed how little Winter had written on it because he said, “You seem distracted. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” Winter said, his voice icy. “I just don’t have much to write today.”

Riptide stepped closer to peek at the scroll and Winter fought the urge to pull the scroll away so the older SeaWing couldn’t read what it said. “You stopped in the middle of a sentence, though,” he pointed out. “You can talk to me, you know. If there’s something going on, that is.”

_ Even if there was something going on, why would I talk to you, of all dragons? _Winter winced at his own thoughts. Riptide was just being trying to be helpful, yet Winter couldn’t help but feel like he was sticking his snout where it didn’t belong. “I’m fine,” he said, trying to keep the impatience he felt out of his voice so hopefully, Riptide would leave the subject alone and leave.

Riptide’s blue eyes flicked back to Winter, and Winter’s gut twisted. The expression on the SeaWing’s face said ‘I’m not going to let this go so easily’, exactly what Winter had been dreading. “You’ve been distracted for a few days now. Now, I’m not you, so I can’t say for sure what’s bothering you, but I think it might be better if you just talk about it.”

Winter’s face started to flush again. _ No. No way. There’s nothing to even talk about. _“I’m fine, really. I’m just a little tired. I have notes to finish.” He felt a little bit bad pushing Riptide away like this, but Winter’s business wasn’t any of the SeaWing’s business.

Riptide nodded slowly and turned around. “Okay. Get some rest when you can.” He walked away, but Winter didn’t watch him go. He kept his eyes glued to the scroll, trying to steel his thoughts. _ I can’t think about him. I’ll just finish these notes and then do something to get my mind off him. _

Winter sat for about ten seconds staring at the scroll, not moving to dip his claws in the ink to finish taking notes. Frustration surging through his body, Winter clenched the scroll tighter in his claws, accidentally wrinkling the paper. He set the scroll down and sighed.

“Why can’t I stop thinking about him?” he growled under his breath. And for what seemed like the thousandth time, the memory of Qibli saying “we’ll probably end up married one day” settled into Winter’s thoughts.

Winter buried his face in his talons. Qibli had said it jokingly. He had said it to get a reaction out of Winter. He was trying to lighten the mood and to make Winter feel less awkward around Qibli’s mother. He had said it because it was so out of the realm of possibility all Winter could do was snort in disbelief, and that’s exactly what he had done. However, the moment Qibli’s mother had insinuated that a SandWing-IceWing marriage could be seen as beneficial in the eyes of Qibli’s grandfather, Winter’s heart leapt in his chest. The expression of bewilderment and what Winter could only describe as pleased confusion that Qibli made was enough to make Winter’s treacherous mind start to imagine things. Winter hadn’t slept very well for a few days after that, and not just because of all the craziness that had happened during that time. Even in the rare moments he had the opportunity to sleep, his brain wouldn’t let him sleep. Instead, his head was filled with thoughts about Qibli. Specifically, they were about what Qibli had said to his mother, and then eventually his thoughts had shifted to every joking remark Qibli had ever said to Winter that could be interpreted as something more than just a joke_. _

And Winter had let it happen. He didn’t bother to stop those thoughts. _ And even if I tried, I don’t think I could have. _Winter would never admit it out loud or even to himself, but he didn’t hate the idea of him and Qibli together. 

He reached up with one claw and touched the little amber teardrop earring dangling from his ear, and a fuzzy warmth spread through Winter’s stomach and chest. He hated the way Qibli made him feel all twisty and wrong inside, as if there were a blizzard raging in his stomach. _ He has no right to make me feel this way, _he thought bitterly, though he felt resigned more than bitter at this point.

_ I don’t, I can’t, feel this way about him. He’s my friend, and those were all jokes. He doesn’t stay awake at night thinking about me like I think about him. We could never, ever be together. What’s the point in even imagining it? _Winter’s heart twisted and he was shocked to realize how sad he felt about that.

_ I hate you, Qibli. I hate how easily you can say things like that without even meaning it. You have no idea how much sleep I’ve lost and how many of my waking thoughts are occupied by you. You shouldn’t have this much authority over my mind. _

“I hate you,” Winter whispered, knowing full well he didn’t mean it. “I hate you, I hate you.” His claws tightened around the earring, but he couldn’t bring himself to yank it out of his ear. Darkstalker had been defeated, which meant the earring now served no purpose, and yet Winter had chosen to keep it on (despite the fact that it clashed horribly with his scales). The earring was like a little piece of Qibli, and Winter wasn’t ready to give it up. He didn’t know if he’d ever be ready to give it up.

_ We’ll probably end up married one day. _

Winter’s wings slumped sadly. _ I wish you didn’t joke so much, Qibli. _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked this! I wrote this off a headcanon I wrote on Tumblr a while back, as I mentioned in the tags of this fic. I love my boys so much and I want to keep writing stuff for them.
> 
> Please leave a kudos and comment if you enjoyed! It really means the world to me <3
> 
> Come talk to me on Tumblr @frostiik


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